Mountaineers fall to No. 21 Oklahoma in Norman

Juwan Staten had 15 points for the Mountaineers, which was only two more points than the entire WVU bench.

The Mountaineers never led as Oklahoma completely dominated the first half, using an 11-0 run over a 5 minute span to take a commanding 38-24 lead into the half.

It was one of the worse 3-point shooting games for the Mountaineers this season, as WVU finished 5-26 from beyond the arc. West Virginia shot just 34.4 percent from the field, while the Sooners connected at a scorching 61.4 percent, including 6 of 11 (54.4%) from deep.

WVU was without Devin Williams, who didn’t play tonight due to an illness. Without Williams in the front court, WVU only had 8 points in the paint in the first half and didn’t shoot their first free throw of the game until the 15:36 mark in the second half.

Oklahoma had everything going for them in the first half. They scored 16 points off the Mountaineers’ first 7 turnovers. They took full advantage of Williams’ absence and had over 20 points in the paint in the first half alone.

WVU did get back in the game at one point early in the second half, getting the score within 10 points, but Hield was too much for the Mountaineers. The junior guard went 5-7 from 3-point range and 8-13 overall.  

West Virginia and Oklahoma will split the season series as both teams won their home games against each other.

WVU will try to bounce back on Saturday against No. 19 Baylor at the Coliseum in Morgantown.

The Mountaineers have a tough stretch of games from here on out as they play six ranked teams out of the remaining nine games left on their schedule, including two against Kansas.